"Hopefully, today I'm going to tell you a few things you'll remember 20 years from now, and it won't be about what a county judge does, but it will be about politics," he said.

For about 45 minutes, he talked to Conrad Higgs's class about policy making, flood control, disaster preparedness and politics in general. He reminded students that politics is a "human business," run by people who are not that different from their own family members.

"The people we elect are like us," he said, pointing to his own granddaughter, one of Higgs' students. "They have pets, they eat meals, and they have grandkids."

Emmett also stressed respect for those in office. He recalled how former president Lyndon B. Johnson would visit with students while Emmett was still a student at University of Texas, and how Johnson pulled one of Emmett's fellow classmates by the lapels over a table when the student called Richard Nixon a fool.

"Don't you ever call the President of the United States a fool," Emmett recalled Johnson as saying.